It Happened One Christmas (1977)
It's Christmas Eve 1944 in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York. A despondent and suicidal Mary Bailey Hatch is praying for guidance on what to do about an incident no fault of her own which threatens her name and the community standing of her longtime family business, the Bailey Building and Loan, which she took over after the passing of her father. What Mary does not know is that most in town, including her husband George Hatch and their children, are also praying for her. All the prayers are heard by Joseph, God's gatekeeper of prayers. As there are no other angels available on such a busy day, Joseph assigns Clara Oddbody, angel second class (i.e. she has yet to receive her wings), to Mary's case, which he reluctantly does as Clara has never been assigned a case on her own in the two hundred years she's been in heaven for good reason.
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hyped garbage
A waste of 90 minutes of my life
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
At the time, Ms. Thomas stated that she undertook this pointless remake of a classic as a way of showing that women could be as valuable as men. That point had been proved in 1946 by a woman named Frances Goodrich who coauthored the original screenplay with a man named Albert Hackett. That was a wonderful screenplay and it showed how the value of women is proved by original creative output not by pallid hackwork like "It Happened one Christmas." I really wish Ms. Thomas had spent her considerable resources and the considerable talents of her cast on something original. They had nothing to add but to switch the male and female leads. Curiously, Ms. Thomas did not switch genders in casting Mr. Welles in the Lionel Barrymore role as the evil Mr. Potter. Evidently, Ms. Thomas belief in the potential of women does not extend to villainy. Pity.
I saw "It Happened One Christmas" in about 1978, I think on Christmas Eve, while sitting alone waiting for my wife to get off work and join me for the holiday. I hadn't seen Marlo Thomas since the original airing of "That Girl" in the '60s. It was wierdly fun to see her on something, and I had never seen nor heard of Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." Later when I did see "It's a Wonderful Life," I immediately connected the story to that of "It Happened One Christmas," and thought it was scandalous how the original had been ripped off, and how geeky it was by comparison to the classic it had been "appropriated" from.Today I wish I could find the knock-off on DVD. Now that I've seen Capra's original so many times, it would be fun to see the Marlo Thomas version again, if for no other reason than to bring back the nostalgic feeling of that evening that I first saw it. I remember that I was very touched by the story that night, geekiness of the treatment notwithstanding (or perhaps partly because of it!), and that it contributed to setting me up emotionally for a very special Christmas holiday with my spouse.
I assume slamming "It's a Wonderful Life" is probably like knocking the book "A Christmas Carol"--both are sacred, no matter how sick people actually are of them (are the round-the- clock showings of "Wonderful" really necessary?). I'm another one who saw this remake first, and then attempted to watch the original. I suspect that 1930s-era film may be one of the most difficult periods for modern audiences to appreciate. I found the original "It's a Wonderful Life" impossible to watch--saccharine and sappy in the extreme. The characters in the remake were much more believable, and to me this was a very successful update. The pain of both the main characters--Rogers' character, returning from WWII with a permanent injury, and Thomas' lead, who is trapped in a life she didn't plan for-- are quite realistic. Thomas seems *genuinely* suicidal; the causes of her depression are clear, and also, like a depressed person, she has become isolated from her family and is snapping at those around her. The premise of the original film, if you think about it, is quite serious; it has a kind of "Our Town" melancholy hanging over it, but this seems lost amid layers of hoke in the very dated original. I haven't seen "It Happened One Christmas" in years, and keep hoping in vain that it will be re-released, or at least shown at Christmastime.
I must be the only person in the world, no the universe, that did not like the original story "it's a Wonderful Life." But then I saw the remake called "It Happened One Christmas" and I have loved that story ever since. It was only repeated on TV a few years and I have been looking for it ever since. I have the feeling I'm not the only one who found that remake more enjoyable than the original and would love to see it again. Please, if anyone out there, reading this message has the clout to get it into print, I know it will gain a "cult" following and make the reproducers of the movie very happy!! As well as all the fans...